The Motive behind the Pretty Face
by the blown mind
Summary: Layne Abeley, now a Philosophy major in college, writes a paper inspired by none other than our five favorite dolls, characteristically and eternally stuck in the high school state-of-mind. Don't hold back, darling. Everyone loves a critic.


The Motive behind the Pretty Face

Layne Abeley, now a Philosophy major in college, writes a paper inspired by none other than our five favorite dolls, characteristically and eternally stuck in the high school state-of-mind. Don't hold back, darling. Everyone loves a critic.

Disclaimer: -any characters/song lyrics mentioned in this story are not my property

-I haven't read the Clique books in years, so if something is off, let me know

Rating: -**T** for swearing and suggestive themes

-who knows what's going to come out of Layne's mouth

This is my first official story (*fireworks and cheers*), so bear with me. Also know that I welcome (translation: beg for) constructive criticism and I will take it in consideration for future updates, especially because this will probably turn out to be a jumbled mess. In addition, I have an extremely rough draft of the next chapter, but I'd appreciate your comments in order to assure the story goes in a favorable direction.

* * *

from: professor carlow

to: layne abeley, cameron fisher, olivia ryan & 23 others

subject: your assignment-message from dr. carlow, ph.d

students, it is the time of year when I must introduce you to the foundation of my teaching and the staple of your learning of this semester in philosophy 110: the five theses paper. you will have two weeks to furnish an analysis of your choice focused on how you would fix the relationship between society and it's perception, or lack thereof, of philosophy and higher-level thinking. highlight a problem in our modern world, and provide your very own beliefs and commentary as a solution. your paper should delve into five different topics in order to demonstrate that deep contemplation can serve as a cure for various issues. I wish you the best of luck moving forward.

* * *

I think you knew who you wanted to be all along.

Professor Carlow, you asked me to "highlight", "showcase", or "mention" a problem in our society. Well, allow me to "enlighten" you on how I do things, because if I even decide to go through with wasting my time on this meaningless paper, I'm going to get absolutely obliterated off of cheap vodka while writing it and face my problem head-fucking-on. Hey, since you're one of the more interesting teachers on campus, you can participate too, if you'd like. Be a dear and take a shot every time you see the word "philosophy", will ya?

The five problems I have chosen to discuss are not the mundane struggles of the average person in our society, but rather devils on which I can speak from past experience. In fact, on the outside, they are each lavishly wrapped up in varying glossy packages (the myriad of designer labels and fragrances) and tied together with different extravagant bows (the dollar signs of trust funds and secrets), but on the inside, they are almost all _identical_ to each other once they are opened. However, one of these five was not like the others.

Oh, Professor, the look I imagine to be on your face at the moment keeps me young. While I find good humor from your confusion, despite my opening line, I am not accusing _you_ of _knowing who you wanted to be all along_; and I am not going to waste your time talking about gift wrap and comparing all the possibilities of the assorted shades of robin's-egg-blue boxes at Tiffany's. Instead, let me introduce you to my focal points of this paper, my five personal problems from hell: Massie Block, Alicia Rivera, Dylan Marvil, Kristen Gregory, and **Claire Lyons**.

Now, I'm not going to go all Dan Humphrey from _Gossip Girl _on your ass and write a freaking exposé, but I will take a page from his book and start with the one I loved, the one "I thought was different", as the melodramatic writers proclaim. Claire Lyons was my confidant, my best friend-someone everyone believed was too good for Westchester, maybe even someone to lead the revolt and revolutionize that fucked-up place once and for all?-but apparently she had other plans to transform into every other preppy she-beast, right from the start. The thing was, Claire feared change. And confrontation, and the unavoidable taste of copper pennies in her mouth when she was about to puke, but that's beside the point. Claire did not want to get left behind by the Pretty Committee, but she also was afraid of losing herself. She is the perfect example of how if members of society stopped and thought deeper about their actions, their morals, and their philosophy, they would not even have half the problems they deal with on a daily basis. Clearer contemplation would have prevented Claire from constantly lying to her mother, from kissing Josh just to selfishly screw everyone over, from desperately clinging to Cam instead of healthily moving on, and maybe even from **leaving me and befriending Massie** in the first place.

People like Claire, who refuse innovation, would be detrimental, and possibly even fatal, to our fragile society. This is why I identify her as problem number one. I raise my glass in a toast to you, "Kuh-laire", with my solution. Well, it's mostly composed of rhetorical questions, but it's the best I could do considering the bottle of vodka I mentioned earlier has disappeared and resurfaced in the form of my pounding headache. I blame you, Carlow. Anyway, my "philosophy" you requested is below:

Is it possible to change so much growing up that you lose more than just the essence of childhood, but the actual personality of the child in you? What if you spend all this time germinating a seed that, instead of flourishing into a flower, rapidly twists into a weed? What if you not only become the person you said you'd never be, but through the repetition of your sayings you become numb to the person you used to be? What if the past you is a hero and the future you a villain, but you look in the mirror presently, when it's already too late? The reality is that the concept of change itself transforms you-once the thought-provoking question is formed, the question remains only until the inevitable answer is revealed, and the answer is no more than the question reborn. Change should not be feared. You cannot live, or die, without the change in between.

* * *

I have no idea what that was. This story will have five chapters. Basically, Layne will ramble her thoughts. She'll address a problem, and the last part of the chapter will be her philosophy, or solution. The next chapter will be focused on Massie. You need to know that Layne is not malicious. Her goal is to recognize the faults in the ambitions or priorities of the Pretty Committee, and she views these as a negative impact to society because so many characters in Westchester are just like them. The Pretty Committee is not on her hit list or anything of the sort; she just believes that they are still stuck in the high school maturity level, and she looks down on them (Layne might have a superiority complex. whoops.) Anyway, Carlow is a random, made-up name, and this assignment is completely ridiculous and fictitious since I obviously know nothing about college philosophy. Please take no offense; I just picked a random major for her to write a paper.

In the future, I have 2-3 really rough ideas already set for the Gossip Girl archive, which I hope to post once I finish this. Thanks for reading!


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